The Bonds of Friendship
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Post frontier. They were so close; no one ever imagined those bonds would break. Least of all him. But they do, and with the fate of two worlds at the balance, he is forced to take drastic measures to fix them...and pay the price.
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes**

A few notes. Firstly, sorry for the long chemistry explanation at the beginning, but I found that the easiest way to explain it. That and it reminded me of Davis' comment in Digimon ZeroTwo in episode, I think it was 11. The Storm of Friendship? If you've seen it, you'd know what I mean.

Secondly, philosophy again. Can't help it, I love philosophy. And psychology, though I have no idea where these ideas come from.

Thirdly, the dark ocean/ocean of darkness is the same one from Digimon ZeroTwo, though it's long after Daemon and that Master they were talking about in His Master's Voice (episode 13), so it's a different evil.

Fourthly, this story begins _in medias res_ (ie. In the middle of a sequence of events), after the 'evil' has stirred up trouble in both the real and digital world, the extent to which you'll eventually find out as the story progresses. It's a literary technique I picked up in English, even got examined on it, and is extremely useful, as it doesn't explain the cause till after the effect.

I was actually planning on skipping the whole theological explanation this time round, then tried to write the first chapter and wound up with an epic fail because it doesn't make sense without the explanation. So you'll all just have to bear with me.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon, or any of the great ideas in science. I plan to one day though...after I get past school.

Anyway, read and enjoy.

* * *

**The Bonds of Friendship**

Post frontier. They were so close; no one ever imagined those bonds would break. Least of all him. But they do, and with the fate of two worlds at the balance, he is forced to take drastic measures to fix them...and pay the price.

Kouichi K

Genre: Friendship, Angst

Rating: T

* * *

**Prologue**

The world balance is a fickle thing indeed; neither good nor evil can outweigh the other for a prolonged period of time as the other immediately shifts to maintain the standard equilibrium. Much like a simple chemical reaction, say for example, considering the state of dihydrogen monoxide in a dynamic equilibrium; the hydroxide and hydronium ions exist at the same concentrations to maintain a neutral solution defined as water. A shift in the equilibrium established which, to state an example, causes the concentration of one product in the inter-reaction of water to exceed the other (thus changing the pH and certain chemical properties of the resulting mixture), the equilibrium shifts in order to counteract the change, thus resulting in a neutral solution once more. Relating this back to the much more complex infrastructure of the universe, the same basic principles apply.

Which is why it was inevitable, that when the digital world was finally freed from evil and left to thrive in its goodness after the defeat of Lucemon at the hands of the ten legendary warriors, that evil would rise again.

It was exceedingly unfortunate to those who had hoped to maintain peace, as through the process of the equilibrium re-establishing itself, it is often necessary for certain _things_ to occur in the reverse direction once the inequality of the two sides causes a backflow. Unlike chemical equations, the complexity of the universe makes it so all matter is constantly in motion, thus the balance between good and evil shifts and realigns itself much like a see-saw in the playground, or a chemical equilibrium if looking at things from a molecular perspective, yet a perfect balance is never reached due to all matter being in motion. As such, while good outweighs evil, the inequality inevitably causes the said 'evil' to grow, and eventually overweigh the good, at which point the reverse occurs. And it is because of this never ending process that neither can ultimately rule.

Which is why, following Lucemon's defeat, and ironically, with the small glitch of data which had remained, a new evil arouse, and once the digital world had reached the peak of its second golden age, made itself known.

The digital world itself was founded upon the principles of balance; essentially, it had come into existence along with the human world as a shadow, or reflection of it. Thus, the two existed at the dawn of time as a mirror which reflected nothing, while each side developed almost independently of one another to form the human world and the digital world as we know today. I say almost independent, because despite how one has attempted to develop beyond the other, they are intrinsically tied at the cores in that despite their separation, they can never separate.

As a result of this connection, made real by the bonding between the spirits of the ten legendary warriors and the humans selected, is the source of the digital world's strength, and inversely, that of the human world's as well.

As deep as this philosophy goes, most remain ignorant of the threads which tie the worlds together. Indeed, many a time, knowledge only appears at the forefront where it is needed at the time its assistance is required, many times more, when the use is outlived. Knowledge is gained and lost over the generations, and the oldest knowledge is often ingrained in the smallest sand granules of time, slipping past all save the finest net.

But even so, there are a select few aware.

Being in the position that he was, existing in a world which essentially shadowed the shadow world, simply because the shadow itself had become independent, and thus in need of its own shadow, he had managed to acquire that knowledge. After all, all knowledge that existed flowed through the dark waters, and the liquid that spread over many worlds with its network eventually flowed into the ocean of darkness which he called his home.

It is a widely accepted notion, so much so that it, in some circles, could be considered truth, that the darkness and the light are coexisting concepts, the union of which supports the structure of life...and lack thereof. The balance itself is built from these two elements, the second from which eight others stem: fire, ice, wind, lightning, earth, water, wood and steel. The ten, mirrored by the ten ancient spirits, then later by their successors, the ten legendary warriors, as well as the continents split in a similar pattern, supported the existential framework of all life; the real world just as much as the digital world, though not as explicit to those who lacked the intellect to understand.

The ten elements are tied together, with darkness at the stem, being the one whose existence relied on the other nine, yet with the ability to surpass them. True darkness, not the shadow from which he stemmed which was more a reflection of an already existing mirror than a true existent, despite the growing independence from both. It was after all, darkness from which the universe had been built, the matter which made up primitive life, the shadows stemmed from which digital world had been built, the dark area, and eventually, his own home...it was the darkness which existed even when the fickle spark of light went out.

It was darkness which was the bane of his existence, and ultimately, his greatest weakness.

Thus, he attempted to destroy the darkness, by corrupting the roots that fed him. In all logic, disrupting the flow of nutrients from the roots of the plant will eventually cause the stem to wilt and die. It was, after all, the way of life. The nine elements being the roots which fed the darkness, it was thus logical to assume that severing or corrupting such roots would trigger a surge in the dark power which would eventually result in its annihilation as the equilibrium shifted once more in an attempt to counteract the change.

And then, when the web was hanging by is frayed threads, the shadows could filter through and devour all.

* * *

**Explanation: **If you're confused about the principles, it's really quite simple. Say you've got white paint and black paint, kay? White paint on its own is white, black paint on its own is black. Say you want to get rid of the black, mix it with white, and you get grey. Thus, in getting rid of the black (pure black), you've also gotten rid of the white. It's the same with light and darkness and the equilibrium. They normally exist in equal concentrations, but corrupting the root of darkness will cause darkness to rapidly exponentially increase, thus when the light has to increase as well and counterbalance the darkness, they eliminate each other and you're left with not much of each. With both sides weak, the medium, in this case shadow, is able to rise up and overpower both.

And in case anyone doesn't know, dihydrogen monoxide is the chemical name for water. I'm not explaining equilibrium because it's junior science, so I expect you all to know it. And not the Davis explanation, though I always find it funny. So if you don't know it and want to, ditto on the next line.

And if you still didn't get that, review or PM me and I'll try and explain it better (or explain it, depending on what you're asking).


	2. Weak and Divided

Author's note's at the end.

Enjoy.

* * *

**The Bonds of Friendship**

Post frontier. They were so close; no one ever imagined those bonds would break. Least of all him. But they do, and with the fate of two worlds at the balance, he is forced to take drastic measures to fix them...and pay the price.

Kouichi K

Genre: Friendship, Angst

Rating: T

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Weak and Divided**

He smirked from his lair, watching turmoil spread across two worlds. It was remarkable how such chaos could result from the simplest form of interference, but there was something immensely satisfying watching the ignorant fools struggle, gaining nothing save pushing themselves, and the worlds they tried to protect, deeper into the web of inevitable defeat.

It was the nature of the web of life, when one knew how to twist it for his own ends. The web where everything is interconnected, the balance between light and darkness making up each individual thread where the strength depended on the balance between one force and the other and which as a whole dominated all forms of life in the universe.

And with the balance upset, turmoil was the result. For a time.

He let the smirk grow wider, looking past the surface levels to the very core of the Digital Plane, wherein all could be seen were ten colours, each representing one of the ten legendary warriors.

Four were as they had been since Lucemon's first defeat and the beginning of the first Golden Age. Five had dwindled into mere shadows of their former strength; ironic as shadow would be the one who caused the slide...and the last, the black sector, remained unwavering...on the surface at least. For even deeper into the sea of darkness' embodiment, there was a sea of turmoil there.

The smirk slithered to its utmost extent.

_Excellent..._

And he couldn't help but marvel at the human weaknesses which had allowed all this to happen.

* * *

Lurking in the shadows while watching the scroll of life unfold was an old habit of his, and one he did particularly well. It was rather useful at times, especially when he didn't want to be seen.

And he didn't, not yet. On two merits. His own. And that of spirit host in his mind.

_ 'This isn't what any of us want you to do, but it's the only way.'_

To bring back an old demon to banish a new one.

_ 'To conquer evil is to become it and win, you know that. But this is different kind of evil, and that's what gives us this only option. Because two evils can't clash like good and evil does. They repel, like two same poles on a magnet. But you have to understand, none of us want this.'_

He had never wanted to live through that again, the shadows pressing on his mind, on his will where he had to struggle every step of the way to simply ensure that it was _he_ who walked out in the end, where one tiny misstep could result in far more than he wanted to think about, more so now that his consciousness was not warped into non-existence but struggling to maintain dominance while the other lurked behind his eyes, epitomising every weakness he pushed away, he rejected, he denied...or accepted; it didn't really matter.

After all, a weakness is a weakness, no matter how it's sugar-coated. But it didn't matter, if it was really the only way...

_'There has to be another way!'_

_ 'I'm sorry. But you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. Things have gone too far and driven too hard for anything less to work.'_

Then he would deal with it. He would control it. He _had_ to.

And he could almost hear the taunting laughter in the back of his mind.

_ 'We're not asking you to do this, you know. We don't have the right. But-' _

'_I know, it's just that...'_

_ 'It will be very difficult for you to control that corruption. Especially after what happened the first time.'_

_ 'I'll do it.'_

_ 'No one will think any less of you if you can't. Perhaps we can-'_

_ 'I'll do it.'_

He looked up, seeing the sky split as it always did, announcing the collapsing gate, and more than likely, another new digimon.

It was time.

He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath, hand over the plastic machine, before reaching for his digi-code, that familiar power that flowed through his veins, before swiping the code through the scanner and initiating his evolution.

'Execute, Spirit Evolution. Duskmon.'

And then, as the blue data unravelled, mercifully cloaked by the shadows, he waited, as another engaged the rouge champion.

_Hrrmph...Devidramon._

Amazing how two Legendary Warriors were struggling against him.

Worse was how long it took for him to get frustrated with the situation and to despatch it, in his own way.

Luckily, the other two had seen it coming.

* * *

'Beats me where that energy wave came from, but it almost decapitated us,' Koji's tense voice came through on the other line. 'Got rid of that Devidramon though.'

Luckily they couldn't see each other, or Koji would have definitely caught the wince that flashed across the other's face. He hadn't thought it would be that difficult to control his emotion, and by extension, the recorrupted spirit, hadn't thought that a single weakness, to slight to be of consequence in most circumstances, could almost cost _that_ much...but it almost have.

And it was too close for comfort. Far too close.

'Us?' Koichi asked, fighting to banish those thoughts for the time being and keep his voice calm, leaning against the wall, though he knew very well what the other was talking about.

He could almost hear Koji scowling on the other end. 'Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if it _had_ decapitated that goggle-head.'

'You don't mean that Koji.'

'You don't get it,' the other shot back. 'After what he done, what he said, and he had the nerve to _deny_ it-'

He cut himself off and tried to calm himself down, willing himself not to let his frustrations out on his brother, currently the only person the rest were on speaking terms with.

'Do you really think your friendship meant that little to Takuya?' Koichi asked quietly. 'Or to the others?'

'It doesn't mean anything,' the other growled.

Koichi sighed. 'I think it does,' he said, even more quietly. 'I'll talk to you later.'

'Koichi, wait!' Koji called, just as he was about to replace the receiver.

'Yeah?'

There was an almost tentative pause on the other line, before Koji's voice came through. 'Do you really think so?'

'Isn't that what I just said?'

'Just making sure.' Another pause. 'I can't forgive them. It hurt.'

He bit back another sigh. God, why was the world so _stubborn_, not to mention short-sighted. Though he had to admit he probably would have done the same thing in one of the other five pairs of shoes.

'Just think about how that Devidramon was using the two of you as his play things,' he said instead, before bidding another goodbye and hanging up, Koji's protest lost against the dial tone.

Then he resorted to simply glaring holes into his D-scanner, lying innocently on the table.

Then winched and gave up as it amplified an already painful headache.

_Is evolving always going to be like this?_ He wondered, caught somewhere between hatred and defeat.

"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't," the saying went. The only problem was, he didn't know his own all too well.

He was fighting with a double-edged sword, which would impale both the wielder and the one on the opposing end...and could impale more.

It was that more he feared.

After all, he had known the risk when he had agreed.

He just hadn't realised how much it was going to take to hold it.

And just as he was musing on it all, his D-scanner lit up.

And he bit back a groan at the blinking dot.

_Two digimon in the same night. Give me a break._

But there was no rest for the weary.

* * *

'Crescemon?' Duskmon realised in an almost bored voice. 'I'd say it's a pleasure, but then I'd be lying.'

'You're going senile warrior,' the Nightmare Soldier snorted, 'if you're cocky enough to think you can take on me and hope to survive.'

He waited, as if expecting the other to speak, but was rewarded for nothing but silence.

Crescemon shrugged. 'I thought you might have been interested in knowing who sent the Devidramon after your brother and his _friend_.'

Koichi still didn't answer. Part of him wanted to argue against the sarcastic way in which the word "friend" was used, while the other wanted to scorn the weak riling attempt. So he simply went for the third option.

'Seeing as you've just admitted to it, it was hardly necessary.'

The other scowled. 'Not interested in a fight?'

'Hardly.'

He turned his back to the other, prompting the Demon Man digimon to morph her Nuova Luna into a bowgun.

'Dark Archery!' she cried, releasing a dark arrow.

Duskmon didn't even flinch as it struck him. 'Are you as foolish as you look?' he asked rhetorically. 'Using an attack of darkness against its own warrior?'

She growled. 'You won't be so cocky when you see the full extent of my power.'

'I doubt it. We're in my territory.'

The scowl deepened as she realised the truth of his words. Her power amplified in moonlight, and that night, it was covered by clouds. He was the warrior of darkness, so his power was amplified by the night.

But still, she was an ultimate. He was a champion hybrid, so she still had the advantage.

Except Duskmon was calmly working off, clearly having no intention to fight.

'Where are you going?' she shrieked. 'I'm not done with you.'

'Power and victory is all you want,' the other said. 'And I've no intention of wasting my time in a catfight.'

'Wha-?' but her half-question was quickly answered as she was assaulted by a storm from two opposing directions.

'Hurricane Wave!'

'Drainin' Rain!'

She growled again, before launching herself into a counter attack to avoid the pelting rain and hurricane winds.

'Lunatic Dance!'

And as she eluded the storm, Kazemon found herself face to face with a digimon she never thought she'd be face to face with again.

'Ranamon?'

* * *

**Author's Notes**

Any questions, namely how Duskmon's back, why the spirits are corrupted, how digimon are appearing in the real world, why Koji's mad at Takuya (and the others) and how Ranamon's there, will have to wait. I mentioned (or think I did) in the prologue that this story starts _in medias res_ (in the middle of a sequence of events) so stuff have already happened that have an impact on current happenings. It will be explained in due time. So if anyone asks, you'll have to wait. But that's 3/4 of the fun.


	3. Storm Dance

**Author's Notes**

It's been quite a while since I've update this fic, hasn't it? Actually, it's been more than a year. *winces* Like a lot of other fics, this first part is a tad annoying to write up. I think it's up to chapter 11…unfortunately. Not that's its boring to read or anything (at least, I don't think so) but it's just…annoying to write up. You know how it is…right?

Now, before I forget again, this takes place two years after Frontier canon.

So my apologies for the late update, and enjoy.

* * *

**The Bonds of Friendship**

Post frontier. They were so close; no one ever imagined those bonds would break. Least of all him. But they do, and with the fate of two worlds at the balance, he is forced to take drastic measures to fix them...and pay the price.

Kouichi K

Genre: Friendship, Angst

Rating: T

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Storm Dance**

Kazemon was…shocked. That was the only way to describe it. Ranamon was…she was a lot of things but she shouldn't be _there_.

Well, she had been one of Cheribumon's warriors, and the most annoying one to boot. They'd gone at each other like a bunch of cats in season, task of taking care of the Warrior of Water having automatically fallen to her because the boys had gotten their D-tectors stolen. She had been almost exhilarated by the opportunity that had fallen into her hands, especially after all that time she hadn't her own spirit thanks to Gigasmon.

Or Tommy. She had technically lost her human spirit knocking Kumamon out of the air. It had turned out to be a wasted effort since he'd lost his own spirit soon after. It had seem a little unfair that he had gotten his spirit back long before hers, that Takuya, as BurningGreymon, had chosen to snatch away _his_ before her own. Even the beast spirit of earth had gotten higher priority, and it had just so happened that Grumblemon had managed to reabsorb his exposed data before the dragon hybrid had managed to snatch it away.

How did she know he hadn't done that on purpose? After all, Takuya had scoffed at the idea of her attaining a spirit after she had first spirit-evolved into Kazemon. He hadn't believed her, and Tommy had quickly trailed behind him. JP had, but he had seemed a tad disappointed, but she could understand. After all, it had taken awhile before he found his human spirit.

None of that had occurred to her at the time, or the time that immediately followed. Perhaps because there was problem after problem to deal with, enemy after enemy to defeat. And even after they had returned to the real world, and the last enemy, death, had been beaten, there were plenty other problems to solve. The twins' family issues were probably the worst of them, seeing as it involved the law, but they all had issues with their friends and families to be sorted out.

It was after that that rifts started forming in their relationships with each other. About the same time a different sort of rifts started appearing, little tears between the boundary separating the real and Digital World. And the those rifts turned into something far worse.

And now Ranamon had showed up out nowhere, right in the middle of a fight with another wayward Digimon.

And she couldn't help but notice that whoever had been fighting Crescemon had left her with the task of finishing the battle.

Crescemon didn't seem too thrilled though. 'Boys are much more fun,' she complained, lifting her bowgun up again.

'Dark Archery!'

The arrow shot for Ranamon, who nimbly jumped out of the way, leaping to the top of the nearest building and running along it. The next arrow shot straight over her head.

'Can't you aim?' the water sprite taunted, shooting another jet of water at the half-bunny.

The third arrow went straight for Kazemon, and she flew up to dodge it.

'Hurricane-' She began, before being forced to cut off and dodge. Perhaps Ranamon's attack hadn't worked, because Crescemon didn't appear weaker, nor had the water bothered her in the least. Or maybe she was just pretending; they knew the warriors had been purified, but who knew what had happened between that time and the current moment…

'Shoot. Drainin' Rain!'

They both got soaked with the attack that time.

Gritting her teeth, Kazemon landed and shook out her wings. When wet, it was harder to fly, but she was grateful her insectoid wings didn't collect water and carry it like Zephyrmon's did. That would be even more of a pain. At least shaking them like a dog…or a bird, got rid of most of the moisture trapped on the surface.

Her gales could take care of the rest. At least that answered her question though.

'Tempest Twist!'

The great hurricane generated by her spinning legs and prowess over wind crashed straight into the next arrow, this time made of pure ice. Crescemon leapt to avoid it, but Ranamon leapt down from above.

'Oh no you don't. Dark Vapour!'

The acid cloud stepped between them, forcing the Lunar ultimate back into the eye of the storm…literally.

Ranamon blinked at her cloud. 'You weren't supposed to be there,' she told it, before sighing. 'I guess I need to work on my aim as well.'

The large red eyes stared as the hurricane faded to gentle wind, revealing a panting and rather mad Ultimate digimon.

Kazemon stared as well.

'Is that all you've got?' Crescemon breathed, using her weapon to stand before readying it.

'Not at all,' Kazemon shot back, a little surprised the Ultimate had managed to withstand her hurricane but not ready to call it quits. 'Slide Evolution, Zephyrmon.'

'A change of clothes isn't going to stop me! Lunatic Dance!'

Once again, the two ladies had forgotten about little ol' Ranamon.

'Dark-' She began, getting ready to cast, before deciding that with Zephrymon so close, tarrying the sword strikes with her claws, it would be a rather bad idea. Not to mention the warrior of wind probably wouldn't take it all that well.

But what else was there. It probably wasn't a good idea to try her beast spirit out for the first time if she couldn't get her attacks in her human spirit form working the way she wanted them to.

She had spent so long deliberating that point that she noticed Crescemon lurching to her after driving Zephyrmon to the ground a little too late.

At least there was nothing stopping her now.

'Dark-'

A red burst of energy suddenly crashed into Crescemon, knocking her off her feet and into the asphalt. She lifted her head to glare at the shadows, her face concorting into something a cross between a grit of pain and a satisfied smirk before her data unravelled.

In a few minutes, the little bytes of data had vanished into the sky.

Zoe got to her feet, staring blankly at where the wild digimon had just been, before turning to Ranamon warily. Half of her wondered if she should be readying herself for a fight, but the warrior of water seemed interested in something else for she leapt back up to the rooftops, apparently chasing the dim moon that had just appeared as the clouds parted.

* * *

Watching the three females dancing around might have been interesting, even beautiful if there had been a prettier light shining on them. Perhaps the moonlight. Perhaps then the battle might have actually made sense. And perhaps it wouldn't have been so…

He couldn't quite think of a word to describe it. For some reason though, the artificial light from the street lamps were bouncing off everything: water droplets, claws, the sword turning into a bow-gun and back into a sword again…and it was irritating his eyes, even going so far as to hurt them.

He could still make our Crescemon in the middle; her armour seemed to reflect the most light, making her the most irritating. The lights flickered and moved all over the place, dancing, mocking, annoying…

For a moment he just wanted to smash it.

He hadn't realised he had acted on the impulse until the lights suddenly vanished. And that left him feeling sick in more than one sense of the word. Especially when he saw how close the beam had come…a second time.

Why was his spirit acting like it was out of his control?

* * *

Ranamon leapt from rooftop to rooftop, looking for any shadow that wasn't natural. She knew exactly what, or rather who, she was looking for, but that didn't seem to make finding him any easier.

She sighed, touching down eventually, before pulling out her D-tector.

'Why didn't these things come with instruction manuals?' she sighed, randomly pushing at buttons, before finally bringing up a map. Locating the signal she was looking for, she almost face-palmed her forehead at the obviousness at it all. Then she let her data fade away, revealing a fourteen year old, long brown hair plaited for bed and tied back with a ribbon, falling onto light blue pyjamas.

She glanced at her attire before blushing and looking around again. Luckily, no-one had popped up in the few seconds.

Well, no-one could blame her. The digimon could really chose better timing, and she had been the nearest one.

Koichi had said not to trust him when it came to chasing down the wild digimon…and she thought she was starting to see why.

She could also see the warrior of darkness had left quite a bit out of the explanation.

* * *

'Oi! Open the door Koichi!'

She hammered away at the door, knowing full well she would wind up waking his mother too if she was home. Remarkably, it took quite a while for someone to come to the door.

'What are you doing here this late Chiaki?' he asked tiredly…with something else buried in his tone as well.

'Late?' Chiaki repeated incredulously. 'It's only about nine or so.'

He looked at her attire and she blushed again.

'I like to curl up with a book before bed,' she defended herself. 'Or my phone. No point getting out of comfortable blankets just to change clothes. Speaking of…' She shivered slightly in the cold breeze. 'You gonna leave a girl standing outside your doorstep?'

Wordlessly, he stepped back and let her in.

Chiaki stepped over the threshold, before giving him a one-over, raising her eyebrows in conclusion. It wasn't just tiredness. It was something else. She just couldn't place it.

'Hot chocolate?' he offered once no-one moved for a little while, forcing the silence to get a little awkward to say the least.

'Sure,' she accepted, taking a seat on the floor in the coffee table. A few minutes later, he brought two mugs, handing the one with painted love hearts to her while keeping the plain one.

'That's my Mum's,' he said in response to the look that had popped up on her face. 'Speaking of, I hope she doesn't come home early tonight.'

So Ms Kimura wasn't home right then.

'Why?' Chiaki asked curiously, before it clicked. A teenage girl and boy enjoying hot chocolate together with no parents home…'Err, never mind.'

She didn't know which was more awkward. His mother walking in on them or grilling him for information, because just the fact that he had given her, well them really, suggested he was a bit of a nut to crack.

'I've got two sets of questions,' she said slowly, after enjoying the warmth from the hot beverage for a moment as the other took a seat opposing her. 'One is about my spirit, and the other…well, it's about yours.'

Koichi looked at her, gesturing for her to go on. Brown eyes met blue…but she could pick out nothing definite at all. She could keep on looking, but she was already getting more questions.

She took another sip of hot chocolate, taking the time to put them into some sort of order. It wouldn't so if her mouth fired off something…well, tactless.

Goodness knew she had a habit of doing that at the best of times.


End file.
